Dodgeball dominate University Championships

Warwick Warriors returned from what was the largest Dodgeball event in the sport’s history as the undisputed victors, with the Men’s first team, the current two-time National Champions, being crowned University Champions for the third year running and the Freshers’ first team finishing with an impressive second place in the Freshers’ tournament.

The University and College Championships were held at Cranfield University last weekend, being split over two days to accommodate the 55 teams in competition. The Saturday saw the Freshers’ tournament and the Women’s tournament occur simultaneously, and Warwick Dodgeball produced the strongest club showing.

The Freshers’ second team emerged from a ‘Group of Death’ and were only defeated in the quarter finals by the Warwick Freshers’ first team, who went on to be valiant defeated finalists. In the final, the Freshers’ first team lost narrowly to an experienced group of players – containing two international players – contentiously competing under a new team name.

The Warwick women’s team also put on a sterling show, finishing 4th in the Women’s contest, with a team containing many new players. The Sunday was the turn of the men’s teams. The Warwick third team narrowly missed out on qualifying from their group, despite some exceptional performances including a draw with the Manchester first team.

Meanwhile, the second team easily progressed from their group, before their campaign was derailed by an excellent showing from the Southampton first team at the round-of-16 stage. The men’s first team produced a typically imperious performance: they dominated their group and blasted through the knock-out rounds with some brilliant performances – the most impressive of which was a 4-0 evisceration of rivals Bedford in the semi-finals.

A controlled destruction of Reepham Raiders in the final bequeathed a third consecutive University and College title to the Warwick men’s first team. This served as the culmination of an exceedingly successful weekend for the club, where all teams had shone brightly in their respective arenas.